A provincial fund that compensates victims of violent
crime is routinely and increasingly paying "pain and suffering" cash
awards to police officers who suffer minor injuries on the job.

Joe Wamback, centre, with his wife, Lozanne, and son Jonathan in their Newmarket home Sept. 28, 2009. The victim rights advocate faced repeated delays for wheelchair and ambulance costs after his son's assault.

By:David BruserStaff Reporter, Published on Tue Sep 29 2009

A police officer received $10,000 as compensation because he can no longer enjoy gardening, visiting flea markets and collecting carnival glass.

Another officer was awarded $1,000 after a suspect bit his arm but not hard enough to break the skin.

A third broke a finger while making an arrest and received $6,500 after he claimed the fracture led to arthritis and a lower quality of life.

A Toronto Star investigation has found that since 2005, more than 400 officers and prison guards across Ontario received a total of $1.5 million from the taxpayer-funded Criminal Injuries Compensation Board (CICB).

The board released 10 per cent of its decisions to the Star, and an analysis shows the officers who receive the cash often return to full duties, carrying a gun.

"It's unconscionable," said Joe Wamback, whose teenage son was beaten nearly to death in a Newmarket park. Wamback waged a frustrating and ultimately failed attempt to secure money from the board after his son's assault. "We all have the greatest respect for the work officers do. It's an extremely difficult job, but it is their job."

A Star analysis shows the number of payouts and the average amount of each award have risen dramatically over the past four years. The amount of money given annually to officers has more than doubled since 2005, with $623,000 awarded in 2008. The number of payouts has also jumped, from 92 in 2005 to 137 last year. That's a 49 per cent increase.

"I'm absolutely appalled," said Dr. Leslie Balmer, a Peel Region psychologist who counsels families of murder victims. "I thought this is a fund ... for victims of crime, not police officers ... doing their job."

Alan Young, law professor and author of a 2003 report on victim compensation systems across Canada, said: "I am somewhat shocked by the audacity that police forces feel they can tap into money that (is not) intended to assist them. It seems like this is double-dipping going on."

Toronto Police Service employees top the list with 133 cash awards since 2005. Ontario Provincial Police is second with 71. Peel Regional Police is next with 25. Ottawa Police ranked fourth with 20.

The forerunner of the current law, the 1967 Law Enforcement Compensation Act, was meant to compensate civilians injured while assisting police, like the widow of Jack Blanc, a Toronto resident who was killed helping police try to stop a bank bandit. Over the years the law changed and has become widely known as a fund for civilian victims of violent crime who lose wages or suffer out-of-pocket expenses. It is now the Compensation for Victims of Crime Act.

It is a law that Wamback, Balmer, Young and others want changed.

The chair of the board, Maureen Armstrong, a recent appointee of Premier Dalton McGuinty's government, did not comment. The board reports to the Ministry of the Attorney General. A ministry spokesman said in an email: "Police have the same right as any other citizen to apply for compensation if they have been the victim of a crime."

A recently retired Toronto police officer said it is widely known within the force that this money is available. He angrily called it a "loophole to rack up cash."

"Are police victims of crime? Let's get serious here," the officer said. "The victim is the guy the police show up to help."

But Toronto Police spokesperson Mark Pugash said, "The legislation is quite clear. (It) permits police officers amongst many other people to apply to the CICB." The OPP said it is up to individual employees to apply for board money. A Peel Region Police spokesperson said officers have a legal right to apply to the board "just like every other citizen," and that workplace insurance often does not fully cover all expenses.

At the Ontario Provincial Police Association, the union that represents OPP officers, president Karl Walsh said in an email that officers can be victims, too, and he lashed out at "so-called" crime victim advocates interviewed by the Star, saying they "should all be ashamed of themselves for suggesting that this law be changed to exclude police officers."

When presented with the Star's findings, Ottawa Police Chief Vern White said he heard officers apply to the board to recoup medical expenses not covered by workplace insurance. But, he added, "I am surprised. I always thought it was for civilian victims."

The secretive provincial agency will not fully disclose how it is spending taxpayer money.

The Star asked for all 412 officer award decisions since 2005, and the provincial agency said it would need up to three months and $5,000 to release some but not all of the details. Due to privacy concerns the board said it would have to black out the names of officers and their forces, although the hearings are public.

The Star narrowed its request and received 40 of the decisions, with officer and force blacked out. So taxpayers will never know the identity of the bicycle unit officer who, in October 2007, chased a suspected trespasser on foot, misjudged his jump over a chain-link fence, caught his arm and tore a bicep tendon. After surgery and physiotherapy, the officer returned to full duties five months later. The officer told the board the arm is weakened, but he has experienced no problems while on duty. He was distressed by his inability to help his pregnant wife while injured. The board awarded him $5,000 for pain and suffering. In every one of the 40 cases, the board awarded "pain and suffering" payments, sometimes to trained officers who broke a bone or knocked their head and complained about not being able to lift weights or play golf like they did.

One officer who received taxpayer money was not hurt by a criminal but by another officer who was trying to strike the suspect with a handgun and missed. Another told the board he lost out on moonlighting opportunities because of his injury, and the board paid him $2,600 for the loss of work opportunities outside of his regular job and $6,000 for pain and suffering.

The officers did not claim or receive much compensation for out-of-pocket medical expenses.

"The police force and prison guards have a very strong union. They have unbelievably strong benefits. They have additional resources that ordinary citizens do not have if they are injured by violent crime," said Wamback, at his home in Newmarket, not far from where, 10 years ago, his son Jonathan was brutally beaten by a gang of teens. Jonathan, then 15, was on life support for two weeks and in hospital for seven months. "The fact they're dipping in to the crime victim's fund is very unsettling." Wamback faced repeated delays in his effort to get money for wheelchair and ambulance costs. His story was featured in the damning Ontario Ombudsman's report "Adding Insult to Injury." The 2007 report detailed results of the Ombudsman's investigation into the board's "deplorable shape" and poor treatment of victims applying for help. Law professor Young said the "spirit of the legislation is not to compensate law enforcement officials." He added police are taking money that others sorely need. "You're actually making the pie smaller for deserving victims who have been complaining for a decade that the board is not responsive to their needs," he said, referring to the Ombudsman's report. Each year the board awards about $20 million to victims.

In a few cases, the Star was able to match details of the incident provided in board documents with newspaper crime reports from the time and was able to determine the identity of the officer.

On Feb. 18, 2004, during the night shift, Niagara Region police constable Edward Bednarowski confronted a man wanted for a fatal hit-and-run, carjackings and crashing through a border stop. As Bednarowski approached, the suspect fired a .22-calibre handgun, narrowly missing the constable. The two men struggled for the gun and with the help of bystanders, Bednarowski made the arrest.

According to the written decision by the board, Bednarowski suffered minor physical injuries but experienced major depression and severe post-traumatic stress disorder that made him "unable to return to work." The board awarded him $40,000. When the Star reached Bednarowski at his home, he said he did not want to comment.

"I have all the respect for the hard work (police) do, bringing down murderers," said Balmer, the Peel Region psychologist. "I have people threatened with losing their homes because they are so devastated by their child being murdered, and they are getting less compensation than that. Some guy, who is not even dead, and he gets $40,000?"

Debbie Levack, whose 14-year-old son Eric was strangled in Brampton six years ago, said she received a $10,000 pain and suffering payment and reimbursement for some but not all therapy costs.

On May 7, 2003, about a month after Eric Levack's murder, an unnamed officer in an unnamed town – the board blacked this information – responded to a disturbance call. The suspect resisted arrest. A fight broke out, and the two fell to the ground. The officer broke his right leg. The officer attended 116 physiotherapy sessions. He can no longer kneel on his right knee but continues to pass the annual "Use of Force re-qualification."

The board awarded the officer $10,000 – the same amount of pain and suffering money Debbie Levack received from the board after her son was strangled.

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